The Majority of Democrats Want Both Candidates to Continue

The latest poll from Rasmussen Reports points out how divided the Democratic party is at this point in the election process and it also points out just how loyal the supporters of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are to their candidates.

Much has been said in the media about the possibility of Hillary Clinton dropping out, which she has said repeatedly that she has no intention of doing. In this poll just 38 % of the Democratic voters said Clinton should drop out while 47% said no and 15% are unsure . While this is still a low number, it is up from previous polls – 34% in late April, 32% earlier in April and 22% in late March. If Clinton is not the nominee, 29% of the Democrats think she should run as an independent candidate. That is a huge percentage. Not surprisingly, 67% of those who support Obama think Clinton should drop out and 20% think she should stay in. On the other hand, just 44% of the Clinton supporters think Obama should drop out and 42% think he should stay in.

They also asked the same question in regards to Obama and 25% of the Democrats said he should be the one to drop out, 64% said he should stay in and 11% are undecided.

As for being loyal to their candidate, 84% of the Obama believe he would be the stronger general election candidate and 82% of the Clinton supporters have the same opinion about her. When they asked who would do the best against McCain, 41% of the Democrats give the nod to Obama and 44% to Clinton.

There is very little chance that the nomination will be settled before the convention. It would take a stampede of super delegate to one candidate or the other and that is not happening. Both candidates have their loyal base, but how do they do with Republicans and independents? With Republicans, 36% think Clinton should drop out and with the independents it is 31%. With Obama, 27% of the Republicans think he should drop out as do 21% of the independents. Now, members of a different party can have different reasons for saying they want a certain candidate of the other party to drop out. They could be saying they want the candidate that they feel would be most effective against their candidate to be the one to drop out.

The voters, all of them, for one reason or another, want the Democratic race to continue. The Obama campaign has announced that they expect and endorsement from Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards. Whether or not that has any impact on just how many want the race to continue will becomce evident in the next poll.